This Blog is dedicated to discussions surrounding the character and culture associated with James Bond. Includes discussion of 007 films, novels, product tie-ins, and the people behind the scenes from Ian Fleming to William Boyd and from Sean Connery to Daniel Craig.
While I pride myself in knowing a bit about James Bond, I know almost nothing about music. My musical knowledge is paltry and my tastes are usually out of sync with just about everyone and anyone. What I do know is that the Bond song theme has become as associated with the culture of the Bond films as the Walther PPK. Major musical powerhouses from Paul McCartney to Madonna have been been entrusted to create and perform a memorable theme song that captures the essence of the film title and the spirit of the world's most famous secret agent. Some of these experiments have resulted in theme songs that transcend the genre and become popular hits in their own right; others not so much. Below are some of the more recognizable Bond Theme Songs by popular artists. Vote and decide your favorite. I will reveal the winner on June 8, 2013.
The opportunity to sing the Bond theme is so coveted that the next Bond film project has not even been announced yet and Bonnie Tyler has been rumored to have reached out to producers to request the opportunity to get a crack at the song even though Adele is widely considered the favorite, as the Craig Era's answer to Shirley Bassey.
While I certainly have my own opinion about who is the best Film James Bond, I decided to give my readers an opportunity to vote and have their voice be heard on this important debate among Bond aficionados. I limited the choice to the Eon Productions'Bonds to provide a more even playing field among the choices. On June 1, 2013 the results will be published and the winning Bond will be the subject of a feature story in The World of Bond. Who will the public choose:
In preparing to write this column every week I do a good amount of research, reading articles, listening to interviews and features, and watching clips. In my travels I came across the featurette Lego Casino Royaleat http://www.bricktease.com. This really is a stop motion, Lego masterpiece. The creators used the actual film dialogue from the 2006 Casino Royale Blockbuster and recreated the opening scene using Lego characters and a Lego background. It is artfully, and precisely done and I am pleased to share it here.
After watching the clip I suggest watching the side by side comparison to get an even fonder appreciation of the precision involved in the filmmaking.
Anyone who is familiar with the novels or films featuring the James Bond character knows that although 007 is an unmatched sharpshooter with his Beretta and later, his famed Walter PPK, he is also very capable of defending himself in an unarmed, hand to hand situation. Virtually every work has him, at some point, squaring off with an opponent, or henchman without the aid of a firearm. So what fighting style is Britain's favorite fictional son skilled in? Kung Fu? Jui-Jitsu? Taekwondo perhaps? Even as a Bond fanatic over the years, I never really, seriously contemplated this question until now. While the answer may vary slightly from Bond persona to Bond persona, it seems 007 may have been a real frontrunner in the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) arena before it was even called MMA, and he is certainly a man whose hands are to be feared.
Going back to the source material, as I always do, Ian Fleming's Bond references our hero training in British Naval Intelligence. This training would, likely, be a form of what has been referred to as Close Quarters Battle Combat, an unorthodox, little documented fighting style that involves deadly blows and the use of economic, crippling strikes which can be executed in close proximity to an opponent when locked in close combat, hence its name. There is also some reference to boxing in his youth and, later in the military which is evidenced throughout all the Bond personas with his striking blows. Fleming's Bond also references some Combat Judo training. Eastern style Martial Arts training is very common today in the West. Varied styles, from Karate to Taekwondo to Competitive MMA, are taught throughout Europe and the United States; however, this was not the case in Fleming's day. Martial Arts study was a closely guarded secret of the East and many Asian countries had strict prohibitions on teaching their secret arts to Westerners. It is no surprise, with Fleming's background, that Bond was a well versed combatant with his hands and in the Asian martial arts. He adeptly kills his arch-nemesis, Blofeld, in the epic novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, not with an assassin's bullet but with his bare hands. Fleming's Bond is a dangerous secret agent with, or without, a weapon.
Sean Connery is heralded, in the pre-Daniel Craig era, as a tough guy without question. Connery even did many of his own Bond stunts. Connery, himself, was a student of Karate, and his swagger, confidence, and skill are evident in his portrayal of Bond. His Bond persona was good with his hands, whether it was defending himself against Red Grantin From Russian With Love (1963), or his prowess in the deadly elevator fight in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). In You Only Live Twice (1967) Bond's Judo skills are evidenced in many of the fight sequences in Japan and, later, he is trained in the art of Ninjitsu, under the supervision of Tiger Tanaka, in preparation of his infiltration of Blofeld's Volanic hideaway. One of the widely and wildly circulated story's emanating from Connery's return to Bond in the non-Eon Productions Thunderball (1965) remake, Never Say Never Again (1983), is that Connery is alleged to have had his wrist broken while undergoing martial arts instruction, and a possible disagreement with, non other than Steven Seagal. In true Connery "tough guy" fashion he ignored the pain until well after the production was wrapped on the film, only to discover that lingering pain was a broken wrist.
While Roger Moorealways appeared to be more concerned about his hair and appearance to get his hands dirty, he was, in fact, an adept Karate student of Aaron Banks. There are numbers of hand to hand sequences in the Moore films, many include "karate chops" and some low kicks and many campy uses of props but his fight scenes never reach the intensity and grit of Connery's, or later, Craig's, fight scenes. Moore understood his limitations in this area, and opted for cunning rather than grit in gaining the upper hand on his opponents in hand to hand combat scenes. The series aided this paradigm by introducing characters such as Tee-Hee of Live and Let Die (1973) and Jaws from The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)and Moonraker (1979) to make Moore's mortal fighting deficit seem less personal in light of these super-villains extraordinary strength and size.
Like many other aspects of the film series neither Timothy Dalton nor Pierce Brosnan made very memorable contributions in the perpetuation of Bond's reputation as a skilled hand to hand combat expert. Dalton is a grittier in his portrayal and more believable as a hand to hand tactician. Brosnan is clearly the most debonair of the Bond actors, but he is the least believable in the "mano-a-mano" arena unless you consider George Lazenby's fighting style, which I choose not to ever consider. Both Bonds hold their own with their hands when appropriate but neither performance had audiences hankering to learn to fight like Bond.
After these lackluster years for lovers of good, manly combat scenes along came Daniel Craig, a gritty, brawler who is skilled in the lethal art of Krav Maga, the martial art of choice of the Israeli Defense Forces. This lethal art combines kickboxing, karate, wrestling, street fighting and Close Quarter Combat. Craig was trained by Darren Levine, founder of Krav Maga Worldwide. The emphasis in Krav Maga is "continuous motion" and this emphasis is exhibited in dynamic form in the amazingly memorable and riveting scenes in Casino Royale (2006) as the one were Bond does mortal combat with Obanno and his Ugandan mercenaries who are are seeking a return of their funds from Le Chiffre one way or another. Craig is believable in the role and believable in the fight scenes. These fight scenes have moved beyond the formula, and sometimes gimmicky, fight sequences audiences had become used to in Bond films and, like the film, into a new grittier, dramatic World of James Bond. These fight sequences are engaging, brutal good film making and remind us that, while Bond is far from a super hero, he is a dangerous and skilled combatant.
Jeffrey Deaver's outstanding James Bond treatment Carte Blanche delivers us a gritty, Craig-like Bond who is skilled in the art of Systema, a Russian fighting style that is designed for close quarters and defense against guns and knives. The key in Systema is the use of an opponent's own energy against them and the focus on key pressure point areas of the elbows, neck, knees, waist, ankles and shoulders to control them. Systema fighters exert little energy and move very efficiently, often giving them the ability to outlast their opponents before crippling them with their effective striking points. Deaver graphically depicts several fight scenes in his novel with such color that one can envision them taking place. In fact, his depiction was so colorful it immediately drove me to seek out and observe the work of Martin Wheeler, one of the foremost Systema practitioners and teachers in the world in the hopes of learning more. For true Bond Traditionalists they would rather see Bond fight an opponent with his hands than with his exploding pen, and Deaver gets it.
James Bond, at his core, is a government assassin. Whether it is under Fleming's "License to Kill" or Deaver's "Protect the Realm...by any means necessary" Bond is is a deadly force to be reckoned with. When most people think of James Bond, they envision the iconic opening sequences of so many of the Eon Production films where Bond turns, fires a single shot, and blood runs down the frame. While there is no question that Bond's skills with a gun are unmatched, he is equally deadly in a close contact combat situation with his hands. Given a choice, which Bond would you stand the best chance of holding your own against in a fight?
It seems like only yesterday that George Lazenby's agent advised him that the heyday of James Bond popularity was past. Now, just a mere 43 years later, every single day is filled with interesting news and happenings about the world and phenomenon known as James Bond. Here are just a few noteworthy items:
1. Subscribers to Netflix were outraged to learn that they were losing access to all of the James Bond Film Collection, plus many more titles owned by MGM Studios, effective May 1, 2013 as a result of an attempt to foster parent company, Warner Bros.'s, competing service by making these products exclusive. This decision was bad for Netflix fans but it demonstrates that the Bond Films are still a valuable asset to any film collection.
2. Wanna drive around town like 007? Well the opportunity to live the secret agent's lifestyle may be at hand in not just one, but two, separate sales of famous Bond Aston Martins. Sean Connery's iconic car of Goldfinger and Thunderball is yours to own for a mere $4.7 million dollars "fully loaded". If the classic is a little beyond your budget, there is still a shot at the rare, Aston Martin V8 Volante driven by Timothy Dalton in 1987's The Living Daylights for sale by Classic Driver for considerably less.
3. Sir Roger Moore is lending his star power to celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the founding of STARS (Syncope Trust and Reflex Anoxic Seizures). This charity, an international organization, has assisted 50,000 people since it's inception who suffer from unexplained blackouts. Sir Roger suffered one such blackout in 2003 due to a later diagnosed, low heart rate. The installation of a pacemaker helped him to address this problem and he has committed himself to spreading the word about the foundation's good work. That is up there with the most heroic of Bond's deeds.
4. Pierce Brosnan, in a recent interview surrounding the opening of his new film "Love Is All You Need", had high praise for Daniel Craig's portrayal of the world's most famous secret agent. "..I loved it. I did. I really did. I've covered a lot of ground since playing James Bond. I knew Daniel. We passed in the night..and we spoke about life and how wonderful it was for him to do 007." As for his time playing Bond, "Bond was a glorious time for me. I have nothing but gratitude for having played such a role...and Daniel is magnificent."
Brosnan really gets it. His perspective on playing Bond in a difficult transitional time, where so much of the source material was experimental and where the public and the producers were unsure of what Bond-type they were looking to associate the series, with is terrific. "My era of playing Bond was still a cross-pollination of Sean Connery and Roger Moore. They hadn't made the leap into the next phase: the huge action, and more Brutal Bond." In retrospect, I think this open minded, embracing perspective is one of the reasons why, although the source materials for his Bond films were not all that memorable, his portrayal of the character was infinitely more likable than his immediate predecessor.
5. George Lazenby really doesn't seem to get it at all. In a recent interview for Entertainment Tonight he talks about his decision not to return to the role of James Bond, not because he was lackluster in the role, but because the days of Bond were winding down. That was 43 three years ago, and here we are with the series making a robust comeback. In fairness to Lazenby he succeeded the iconic Sean Connery, who was inextricably linked to the character itself. He also was faced with a time period which he referred to as "the hippie era" and it was hard for him to see the clean cut Bond character competing in the movie world alongside an "Easy Rider" movie audience. Falling in step with the other Bonds, however, Lazenby did praise Craig's acting in the lead role, although he longs for license to kill who "could still shed a tear over someone dying". Maybe that is the major difference between Craig and Lazenby's portrayal of Bond; Lazenby longs for a 007 who sheds a tear with every killing and Craig, to quote Casino Royale "...wouldn't be very good at my job if I did." I am with Craig.
While I pride myself in knowing a bit about James Bond, I know almost nothing about music. My musical knowledge is paltry and my tastes are usually out of sync with just about everyone and anyone. What I do know is that the Bond song theme has become as associated with the culture of the Bond films as the Walther PPK. Major musical powerhouses from Paul McCartney to Madonna have been been entrusted to create and perform a memorable theme song that captures the essence of the film title and the spirit of the world's most famous secret agent. Some of these experiments have resulted in theme songs that transcend the genre and become popular hits in their own right; others not so much. Below are some of the more recognizable Bond Theme Songs by popular artists. Vote and decide your favorite. I will reveal the winner on June 8, 2013.
